Bio: Lidieth Alvarez Guzman - Nicaragua

Lidieth Alvarez Guzman lives in the community of Limon 2, Tola Municipality, Department of Rivas, the country of Nicaragua. She is founder and director of the cooperative Genesis. In 2008 Lidieth led a group of community members to learn and reflect on the idea of forming a Cooperative. This group decided to form a Cooperative, and to use their existing knowledge, and the unlimited demand for local bread products, to produce the product of homemade bread. A group of 10 people, among them are men but most of them women, prepare bread to sell in places like on the streets, hotels and restaurants, and visitors to their city.

The Cooperative, in 2010, formed a youth group called Phoenix Formation. This group, formed in response to the lack of employment and education in the community, involves single young women. The Cooperative also provides a small revolving fund which offers opportunities for women to start their own business. They have trained over 75 women in their workshops for women, and other groups have developed their own businesses based on what they have learned.

Lidieth and coworkers provide training on how to create a capacity for cooperation and business planning, marketing and construction company operating income skills, baking and sewing, knowledge of sustainable development, equality at work, sexual and reproductive health, women's leadership, etc.

In 2011 Lidieth was selected as an ILEAP Fellow and participated in its training program in Seattle, Washington. Through sharing experience with other iLEAP Fellows participating in the program and engaging with others in the Seattle area who share her passion, she deepened her competence to lead in her community.